My Cultural Bag
Lexi P. LA- 3-4

Our cultural bag means a lot to me. This helped me realize how unique my family is. When I first sat down to brainstorm, I got pretty emotional with a few of the memorable things I was thinking of. I think it is really cool to see how our families are extremely different from each other. That’s what I think of our cultural bag.

Something I found in my keepsake box is a paw print from my old dog. She was SO sweet and she helped me feel better when I was sad. She was the most adorable dog you would ever see. She was a German shepherd. J.J’s was tan like the hot sand on a beach and mixed with the tan was a black and a beautiful light brown. Also J.J had a great way of helping you through thick and thin. She would sense that you were feeling down so she would come and give you a big lick on your face with her bright red tongue and she would come and snuggle with you. When she got older she got really sick. She couldn’t walk so she just sat in the same place all day. So one day we brought J.J. to the vet and we had to put her down. Tears rolled down my face just like raindrops trickling down your cheek. Right before they put the shot in her, they took her paw and smushed it in gooey tan clay. Once the paw print was done, she was dead. That is why this paw print is so meaningful to me. Something I want to keep forever.

Another thing that means a lot to me is a little sheet of paper about my old hamster Minnie. Minnie was so special to me because she helped me through hard times. I would take her out of her cage when I was crying, and I would just hold her tight against me and she would snuggle in my shaky hands. Her little tan and white furry and fluffy body made me feel extremely better. Once she died I wrote a paper about how much I missed her. It mean a lot to me because now every time I look at a picture of her it makes me feel so much better. That is another item in my cultural bag that means a lot to me and that I will keep forever.

As you see I have a lot of cultural items that mean a lot to me, but something else that is different and unique is the way my family celebrates our birthdays. Our birthdays are unique because we don’t only do cake and presents we also get to pick whatever we get to do that day! When it is my birthday I get to pick where to eat lunch and what activity to do. I usually choose bowling. So my family has a nice lunch and then we go bowling. The sweaty ball rolls out of out hands and pushes the tall white pins down. I think it is really nice way to celebrate our birthday. That is the way my family celebrates birthdays and a tradition that I will pass down to my kids.

Another family tradition is my grandma’s crostiching. My grandma makes these amazing pictures. She makes dogs, people, or even food. It makes it even more special to know that her grandma did the same thing to her. Her crostiching is perfect in every way. When my cousins and I were all born, my grandma made us a crostching of how many pounds we were and facts about us when we were born. She also makes a poem for all of us, “ I see the moon and the moon sees me, God bless the moon and God bless me” that is what the poem says. That is another one of my interesting family traditions.

As you can see, I have a copious amount of family traditions. Something else that is really special to me is my mom’s old horses. These are really special to me because my mom used to play with those horses when she was little and now I have them. These horses are really cool because they are beautiful and when I am looking at them I wonder what I am going to give my kids when I am older. The horses really are beautiful. It makes me feel so special to know that I am trusted with such important items. That is why these horses mean so much to me.

Another interesting tradition that my family does is the way we celebrate Christmas Eve. One thing that we do is go to our church. What we do during the service is we light candles and sing songs like silent night and the first noel. We also learn that there is more to Christmas then just presents, what we are really celebrating is Jesus's birthday. After the service is over we go home and we get to open one present of our choice on the night of Christmas Eve. That is another really fun and interesting family tradition.

Another really memorable family tradition that we do is read goodnight cards. Before we go to bed my mom reads us these cards that say things about God and his angels. That is one way my family thanks God Once we read them we stick them under our pillow so we can sleep in peace. I think that is something that means a lot to my family and something that make us different. That is another interesting family tradition.

Those are my memorable family traditions. Everything in my cultural bag is extremely important to me. It shows me that every one is really different. I hope I can pass down these great traditions to my kids so they can have the experience and the feeling of love and care that I feel now. Those are my family traditions that make my family unique.